Elections
The Vice Chair is responsible for conducting elections as delineated in the By-laws of the Student Committee on Medical School Affairs. All elections will be announced via BU email and instructions for candidacy and voting will be detailed then.
FALL ELECTIONS
Within five weeks of matriculation, a secret ballot election will be held for the new M1 class to select seven MD representatives and one MD/PhD representative to SCOMSA’s General Body. To announce candidacy for this election, students must submit a short video outlining their experience and goals as a representative. Two representatives who were elected will also be simultaneously elected as the Wellness Liaison and also the Dean’s Executive Committee representative. Candidates may choose to run for these positions at the same time as they run for a SCOMSA General Body representative position and failure to be elected to these positions do not exclude someone from a General Body position.
SPRING ELECTIONS
Representatives elected during the Fall Elections serve for six months, at which point another election will be held to select permanent representatives that will serve their class until graduation. The original representatives are eligible for this election, and the Wellness Liaison and Dean’s Executive Committee positions will also be reelected at this time. Students can announce candidacy through a written paragraph describing their past work if they were a representative during the Fall semester, or qualifications if they are a new candidate.
For both elections, those with the highest vote totals, ranked 1-7, shall be elected as MD representatives, and the MD/PhD candidate with the highest vote total shall be elected as the MD/PhD representative. 60% of the class must vote in order to reach quorum and validate the election results. All representative-elects are subject to approval by the Deans of the Medical School.
Policies regarding timelines and announcements are detailed in the By-laws.
Departure of Elected Representatives and Special Elections
In the event that three of the eight representatives for a class are no longer able to serve on SCOMSA, an election to replace those three representatives will be held no later than four weeks after the third representative announces their departure from the General Body. The same vote and quorum rules apply.
Reasons that a representative may no longer serve on SCOMSA as a voting member may include a leave of absence or research year. Representatives must remain an active member of their class and have the same anticipated graduation date to be eligible to represent their peers through SCOMSA. Should the representatives who left return as active students, they are eligible to continue with SCOMSA as non-voting members until graduation.
Should a representative to a BUSM education committee, the ATM committee, or the OSR depart from their appointment for any reason, a special election will be held to replace that representative. Only in extraordinary cases where there exists a compelling reason will SCOMSA’s executive board unilaterally appoint a representative, and then only with the support of SAO and typically with a reasonable request to do so from the Chair of the standing committee in question.
SCOMSA Executive Board
At the conclusion of the Spring semester of the M1 year, the Executive Board for the next year will be elected from the M1 representatives by SCOMSA’s General Body via secret ballot with the exception of the Secretary as this is an M1 role – a temporary rising M2 officer may be selected until the fall or the incumbent Secretary may continue in their role provided that they do not take on a new Executive Board position. The Vice Treasurer should also be reserved for an incoming M1, though a temporary rising M2, M3, or M4 officer may fill the role with the expectation that if sufficient interest exists in the M1 class, they should step aside.
The 3rd Year Officer, and 4th Year Officer are preferentially selected among rising third and fourth year representatives who have previously served on EBoard and may also be elected should the position be contested. These EBoard members serve primarily as advisors who provide institutional knowledge and continuity of SCOMSA’s leadership.
Uncontested positions do not require any further election or certification. Advisory positions as outlined in the by-laws are not elected and instead are selected at the sole discretion of the Executive Board.
Non-SCOMSA Representative Elections
In addition to SCOMSA representative elections, the Vice Chair, as the chair of the student Committee on Committees composed of the SCOMSA Executive Board, also administers the election process for a variety of representatives serving on BUSM committees and national organizations. These include:
- The Medical Education Committee (1 primary, 1 alternate)
- The Pre-clerkship Curriculum Subcommittee (1 primary, 1 alternate)
- The Clerkship Curriculum Subcommittee (1 primary, 1 alternate)
- The Electives Curriculum Subcommittee (1 primary, 1 alternate)
- Appropriate Treatment in Medicine (ATM) (2 representatives)
- Association of American Medical Colleges Organization of Student Representatives (OSR) (1 representative)
- Any other requests from School administration for student representatives to serve on MED committees
These representatives are not SCOMSA representatives unless they are also elected as such separately. The primary representative shall hold voting power while the alternate representative will vote in the absence of the primary. However, both are expected to attend the meetings for their respective committees. ATM and the OSR do not have a primary/alternate system and further information will be provided to the students elected to these roles.
All representatives on these committees serve for their entire time at BUSM unless they leave their role for any reason, or are removed from their role by SCOMSA upon recommendation by the student Committee on Committees due to unsatisfactory performance. In these cases, a special election will occur to replace the outgoing representative(s). Elected representatives may be requested at times by the student Committee on Committees to submit reports on the public business of their respective committees to SCOMSA for review.
Any questions regarding the elections process should be directed to SCOMSA@bu.edu or the current Vice Chair of SCOMSA.